Heavy Rains and Severe Storms: June 20-21, 2013

Soggy Fields at the U of M St. Paul Campus- June 21, 2013Photo credit: Minnesota State Climatology Office

Radar-based precipitation estimates the 24 hour period ending at 7am June 21, 2013Courtesy: National Weather Service

The active weather pattern continues with another round of thunderstorms over a large section of Minnesota from the evening of June 20th to the morning of June 21. This massive cluster of storms dropped a widespread swath of 1 to 2 inches of rain across central and northern Minnesota, and leaving broken branches and some flooding in parts of the state.

This latest round of precipitation began with severe storms and heavy rains over west central Minnesota during the day on June 20. A CoCoRaHS observer near Lake Park in western Becker County measured over three inches of rain in an hour from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on June 20 with a 24 hour total of 6.68 inches. The storms continued through the overnight hours and moved into the Twin Cities in the wee hours of June 21. The height of the storm was from roughly 3am to 5am across the Twin Cities Metro area. The highest 24 hour total found so far was 7.75 inches at Breezy Point in Crow Wing County. A volunteer observer with the Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation Network near Nisswa measured 6.14 inches of rain. Some roads were reported underwater in Todd County and flooded basements were reported in the Morris Area. 5.60 inches was measured at the University of Minnesota Morris weather station. The Twin Cities International Airport saw 1.95 inches of rain with 1.79 inches falling in three hours.

The trigger for the heavy rain and thunderstorms was a stationary front draped east to west over Minnesota. The thunderstorms developed along and north of this boundary and moved to the east and then turned southeast.

There were also numerous reports of wind damage across central Minnesota. One of the higher wind gusts reported was 85 mph at Benson in Swift County. 71mph was reported at Morris. There was also widespread reports of power outages across central Minnesota with Xcel Energy reporting 133,000 people without power at one time.

The massive area of thunderstorms maintained its strength and continued across Wisconsin and was approaching Chicago by lunch time on the 21st.